Registration day is a crazy day. What your whole world has been built around for three months, spawned in your brain canals and painstakingly typed into computers and spreadsheets and complex Filemaker and Finale files suddenly becomes a reality right in front of you.

You sit behind a table and watch as the people whose music videos you’ve watched and whose talents you’ve tried to capture from afar walk through the line. One by one. Hour by hour. The excitement is palpable. Every person brings their own personality and talents to one place for one moment in time.

We are embarking upon something that is a magnificent, gargantuan, and utterly complicated feat. We’re trying to make dreams come true. We’re trying to create music that is not only tailored for every unique person, but music that speaks to the heart. We’re trying to foster a creative environment that is not fed by pride or a desire for self-gratification, but by fellowship, kindred purposes, and beautiful art.

The friendships that this environment fosters are deep and long-abiding. Every year as FASA comes around we see that in fresh and bold relief. People from around the country converge to help create this magical musical adventure. Some people that we have known over ten years. It is Emily from Texas who comes weeks early to be the FASA music librarian, and whose chipper spirit and genius organization give bright joy to all those around her. It is Marissa and I scheduling classes till 4am, reminiscing on the days when we both were twelve-year-old FASA students who memorized drama narrations together barefoot because we were free spirits and now we can’t believe that we’ve been friends over ten years and Marissa is getting married and you just got married.

Such beautiful relationships, countless, dozens of people, too many to ever name or thank properly, converging and pulling all-nighters every year, working 16-hour days, making positivity their lifestyle, all with smiles on their faces and friendly conversation and happy hearts because we are all working for something we believe in, for something powerful that we have experienced and want others to experience.

The arts are magnetic. They unite people together. Simple sounds create emotions. We are all unique individuals working together to create something beautiful. It is a miracle.